Notre Dame is doing all it can to qualify as many athletes as possible for the Big East championships in one week, and as a result will compete Saturday at the Windsor Team Challenge in Windsor, Ontario.
"[The goal is] to give those kids that are there the opportunity to get qualified for the Big East or to try to just do a little sharpening, or tapering you might say, for the Big East championship the following weekend," Irish coach Joe Piane said.
Piane is sending 22 Irish athletes up north, an equal number of men and women. The majority of the Irish athletes are sprinters, although there are three distance runners going on the women's side. The only jumper participating this weekend will be sophomore Blair Majcina. There are no distance runners for the men's team.
"It's mostly kids that either haven't quite qualified yet for the Big East meet or they might need a little sharpening," Piane said.
One strategy Piane hopes to use for the athletes competing this weekend who have already qualified for the Big East is to have them run in an event that is shorter than what they are used to racing.
"We might put a quarter-miler and put him in the three hundred, or we might take someone who is in the two hundred and put them in the sixty," he said. "It's really just to get kids a little bit sharper for the Big East."
The remaining Irish athletes not participating in the Windsor Team Challenge will continue to practice as usual this weekend in order to stay sharp for next weekend's conference championship.
